First and foremost, a big thank you to everyone who provided feedback and PM's to our questions. You helped make my niece's 1st "big game down" experience possible. When she turns 13 though next year and refuses to hunt small game, such as elk or deer though, that is also on all of you!

The story ... picking up with this spring, with 3 points for youth moose and no 8999 ghost codes as she was now a whopping 62 pounds and could handle more than a rimfire. Admittedly, life is not fair though, she did have extra competition in the drawing, as she was was joined by her nine year old brother after his successful completion of hunters ed. He on the other hand is bigger and can shoot... we'll get back to that though.

Well come mid-may, after looking, double checking and then waiting for WDFW confirmation of results, it was true, she would be in the woods for a cow moose, and an adventure. Given she lives on the west side of the Olympic Peninsula, she would also get the added adventure of seeing what the dry half has to offer over her 9.5 hour drive east. With that said, due to a work injury, her dad (my brother), would not be able to enjoy the experience quite the same as every father probably envisions... you know - the exhilaration that follows the crack of the gun and you know the hit was solid, after starting the morning in the dark, making your way through the woods, to the edge of the cut waiting for the fog to clear, listening to every snap of a twig. While he made it out, as there was nothing that would stop him from witnessing this and sharing in this occasion, it was not without hardship.

Through friends and family though, we were able to access a wall tent (thank you Randy!). The intent was to go hunt moose through opening day of deer and then see if her brother could also get in on the action. After numerous inquiries, a locations was determined, preparations were made, and before we knew it, we were setting up camp (as always... in the DARK). As we could hardly sleep, we did a little pre-hunt reloading with a lee hand press ... she even loaded herself one very special 7mm-08, start to finish, with 140 gr. of Accubond assurance in front of 46 gr of 4350. And YES, this was thoroughly supervised and monitored.

Day 1 - 30 minutes in, we rounded the corner and what appeared to be three obscenely large black spots stood upon the hillside (please keep in mind, everything looks huge compared to those massive blacktails we get in the 60x GMUs). Poor girl turned ghost white and couldn't say a word. We ranged them between 230 and 330 yds. Come to find out later, she thought we were going to make her shoot that far, but we had already made the decision we would not reach out past 100yds given the caliber, and we were not going to take anything that morning until we lined up cold storage (thanks again on that Hunt WA members). Needless to say we moved on.

Aside from seeing a number of other moose, which is shocking they can be that plentiful, and becoming concerned we would not see any more cows (after seeing 5 straight bulls over the next 24 hours), the evening of day 2 brought some action. Rounding a corner, dad spotted a cow in the road. She loaded one straight into the chamber, went around the bend, and threw up the shooting sticks as uncle (me) and brother waited in anticipation. After what seemed to be a whole conversation (he said, and she said, and can you believe she would, and then ...) she touched off the trigger sending her self-loaded lead (I know, we are totally poisoning ourselves!) some 80 yds down range. Then the worried looks flew our way... and he wanted another bullet. I grabbed what I could, rushed to him, never looking down range. She loaded back up, and couldn't get settled on her sticks because the sling was hung up in them (a pivot point a hands width in front of the trigger doesn't even seem steady to a 12 year old... who'd of thought). By the time I fixed it, dad was uttering words we never admit to speaking around our little girls, followed by "it went over down the hill".

We made our way up the road, only to find the bright red signs of a solid shot, but no game. She proceeded to tell her extremely excited father that we should wait if we thought the shot was good. While he was busy assessing the validity of her statement, whether she had just watched one too many hunting shows, or had been reading her brothers hunter safety manual, she point straight down from the road and exclaimed, "She's right there!"

From 6:30pm to 1 am - it was chainsaw winching, cutting, loading and hanging. She stayed with us most the way, but she now understands why we all said the fun stops and the work begins after the shot.

To round out the trip... brother took a nice doe (w/ his own special self-loaded .243) and she did as well. Unfortunately, those pics are not in my hands.

We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.-Ronald Reagan

Thank you everyone for the wonderful words of encouragement for my niece. I read her everything the other day when I asked to have her dad send the deer pics.

First she was so happy to hear so many people were excited for her... then quickly inquired why so many people would show such excitement when they were not the ones who shot the animal. After explaining to her the sportsmanship and camaraderie amongst hunters, and how that translates to the excitement in sharing experiences, especially of our youth, she quickly moved on to lecturing me that I didn't know she was actually 11 as of July (not 12). She didn't buy the argument that she just seems really mature so it was an easy mistake.

All said, thank you very much for providing such a forum, and the excitement, that will assuredly help our youth (the future voters) continue this great tradition we have as hunters and stewards of the land!

Quick note on their deer... My nephew (9) shot his off hand at 40 years opening morning after it cut a quad trail in front of him and waiting just inside the tree line. While the deer came with great relief, he was actually really upset Friday night when he was having issues holding a group at 100yds, and we told him we were limiting him to 50 yards. So we don't get any second guessing... at 100 yds he was 3 shots within 2 inchs and a flier... the fliers were within 5 inches of the center, but that could very well mean a wounded animal. After 4 of these shot groups we stepped in and moved him to 50 yds. He was shooting 1/2 dollar groups all shots at the distance ... no more fliers - poor kid was simply nervous. Bug is off his back.

My niece, day three in the evening, her eyes bested everyone when she saw it sneaking through the brush.... a short shot, clipped lung and a long track yielded her second animal of the trip.

While my brother's smile appeared as if it would never leave, I hear it has long since passed as he has been processing moose and deer for the past 4 nights. I am certain he will not remember that 10 years from now though... we will remember his kids' first animals, as our fathers all remember ours! Hunting is about family, community, and memories!

Congrats to her! looks like the 140 accubond and IMR 4350 did the job! Congrats to her! P.S. My wife uses the same load in her 7mm-08, using a 140 Partition..

C- money... just for clarification, as my first post lacked a couple details (it got way to long in the tooth to start with), she loaded Hodgdon 4350, not IMR. IMR 4350 is nice though, her 7-08 just likes the Hodgdon better, unlike my brothers 30-06 which eats up the IMR 4350 like it was fresh kill tenderloin! Best of luck to you and your wife this year.

The ole 30-06 is deadly accurate using IMR 4350. My wifes dream hunt is to hunt moose someday, and we had that hunt in mind when we bought her the 7mm-08. Her and I both know the 7mm-08 is plent of cartridge here in N. America, but it is sure a confidence builder to see a successful moose hunt using that cartridge, and a very similar load. Once again, congrats to your family on a freezer full of wonderful moose meat.